UNCONDITIONAL LOVE HEBREW SYMBOL TATTOO SKIN

He tells them what they are supposed to say to future generations that inquire about the strange stack of stones. It's interesting that in the story from Joshua the leaders of Israel don't decide to commemorate God's help - God commands them to. The Israelites are notoriously bad at remembering previous cases of divine assistance. Then I remembered where I got the idea of an ebenezer in the first place - God's people. The whole point of an ebenezer, or a tattoo, is that it's FOREVER, not for eight years. A person incabable of keeping the first surely can't keep the second. For a while I thought that there was no point in making a new promise. Instead, almost every day for over a month I made the same destructive choice, sometimes using the hand that I wear my promise on. I had ignored the fact that I had committed to making different choices. Somehow, in spite of all of the evidence, I had forgotten about the deep waters God had previously carried me through, how I was a survivor, and how pain eventually does come to an end. I was ashamed that I hadn't remembered what I swore I would remember forever. My agape morphed into a black reminder of my shortcomings and how in a split second I managed to trash 8 years of sobriety. Actually, not a meaningless symbol, a symbol of the promise I failed to keep. I felt like an idiot with a meaningless symbol on my wrist. Seconds after I broke my promise I hated myself for it. I kept that promise for 8 years, 4 months, and 2 days. My tattoo was my promise to myself and to God that I would never harm my own body again. I wanted to make a promise in permanent ink.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE HEBREW SYMBOL TATTOO SKIN

I wanted to honor the blessing of the peace I had finally been afforded by walking away from the experience changed. The mark on my skin was to serve as an ebenezer, a reminder for for the rest of my life of the deep waters God had carried me through, how I had survived, how pain always comes to an end, and how I could make choices moving forward that honored the life God has given me. I felt rescued, finally pulled out of the mire. The way I love tacos just wasn't going to be enough.īy the time my 18th birthday rolled around and I could legally get a tattoo, I had gone six months without cutting and I was closer to God than ever before. I knew that if I was to truly overcome my desire to harm myself, I would need to love myself the way God loves me - unconditionally. I preferred it to the English word for love since in English you can love God, love skiing, and love tacos, and never need a different word. I chose the Greek word for unconditional love, agape. When I stopped cutting and had dealt with my anorexia, I decided that I would get a TWLOHA tattoo. The tattoos are meant to serve as a reminder, before you choose to harm yourself, that you are loved. Many who feel connected to this movement have gotten tattoos on their arms, most of which say 'Love' in some form or fashion. It's a nonprofit organization built around helping people who struggle with depression, self harm, and suicide. If you don't know about TWLOHA, you should look into it. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.'ĭuring my high school depression I discovered To Write Love On Her Arms. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. God told them, ' This will be a sign among you. The leaders gathered the 12 stones and stacked them up into a monument. Before they leave the banks of the river, God tells the leaders of the nation to take 12 stones from out of the middle of the riverbed, from the place where their feet stood firmly against all odds. In the story God cuts off the flow of water from both sides, and the people walk safely on dry land in the midst of a river that is normally overflowing. In the book of Joshua, the tribe of Israel needs to cross the Jordan river with the ark of the covenant. The dictionary definition of the word is commemoration of divine assistance.

My favorite story of an ebenezer doesn't actually include the word anywhere, but that's what it is nonetheless. As he placed the stone he declared, 'Thus far the Lord has helped us.' He called the monument Ebenezer, which means stone of help.

At the end of the battle Samuel takes a stone and sets it up as a monument to the victory. In 1 Samuel 7 the Israelites achieve victory over the Philistines. Even in the Bible it's only used in one book. It's not every day you hear that word thrown around, and when you do it's often in reference to a Charles Dickens character. It's fun to say, and fun to spell, and fun to see if people actually know what it means.

Unconditional love hebrew symbol tattoo